Zone of Alienation Ukrainians in Idaho watch in horror as Russia invades their home HARRISON BERRY
KAREN DAY
At a recent demonstration at the Idaho State Capitol, Ukrainian-Americans and allies raised awareness of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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n the south Boise home where Oleksandr “Alex” Solodovnik lives with his family, the remains of his 21st birthday celebration hang over the fireplace, juxtaposed with the mood in the room. “It’s mostly [between] the civilized countries, the civilized part of the world, and Russia,” Alex says about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which escalated dramatically just a month earlier, on February 24. Seven people and a lot of feelings sat at a circular kitchen table meant for four. The Solodovniks had recently welcomed several family members from Ukraine, including Alex’s grandparents Taisa Baranova and Anatolii Baranov, and an aunt, Yelisaveta Volianyk. Taisa was undergoing treatment for cancer and on March 3, a Russian bomb had killed Igor’s father in his home. Every day they receive reports from friends and family in the war-torn country about deaths, the destruction of cities and other 26
atrocities, and mourn the people they’ll never speak with again. A good word to describe the sentiment isn’t English, but German: heimweh, which translates to “homesickness,” but with added emphasis on tension and longing. While hard numbers are scarce, people involved in relief work estimate that between 150 and 200 Ukrainians have left the Eastern European country for the Treasure Valley in southwestern Idaho. Often, they come into the homes of friends and family who live in the Gem State, sometimes with little more than the clothes on their backs, and they’ve received scant resources from the government to find housing, employment, or basic necessities. This does not perturb Ukrainians like Alex and his family, in part because their eyes are fixed on the conflict tearing their homeland apart. “It’s really hard to see what is happening right now, and that you
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are not able for some reason to be there,” Yelisaveta says. “You have a job, you have a car, you have a family, a whole life, and now, because of other people, if I can call them this way, you have to leave this place. It is just really hard for everybody.” Popular Ukrainian support of closer ties to the West have been a source of tension between Ukraine and the Russian Federation since the early 2000s. The situation escalated in 2014, when Russian troops took control of the strategically significant Crimean Peninsula, the location of one of the few warm water ports available to the Russian Navy. That same year, Russian-backed separatists seized two regions in eastern Ukraine. Russia’s stated goal of the present invasion is to permanently orient Ukraine toward Russia, and away from the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
